11 thoughts on “This is What I Mean”

  1. I know I’m in the minority these days, but I still read and occasional comment on Jezebel. This is really disappointing, though given their history, not at all surprising. A handful of commenters mentioned his history, and the blowout at Feministe, and were shut down, their comments moved to “off-topic” or banned outright.

  2. Jezebel and I were breaking up anyway and this bit of BS irritated but it didn’t actually make me as outright angry as his patronizing article on butt sex (on Jezebel) did a couple days ago.

    Kathy, I was vocal in the threads shut down or moved off-topic on Jezebel in both recent Schwyzer articles. It’s just really disappointing, especially after the recent hullaballo at Feministe.

    B, his level of patronization is vomit inducing in everything he writes. It’s like he’s stolen the gloss of feminist ideas and tried to put some sort of academic spin on them but it only makes it upsettingly patronizing and somehow takes out any strength said argument had. His presence in any feminist conversation just disgusts me.

  3. Oh, I see you posted extensively about him while I was out of town. And you and I are on the same page, ideologically speaking, even if I’m not caught up on my blog reading.

  4. That piece is atrocious. Also, NO professor (especially one who has a history of sleeping with his students) should EVER be telling his students they’re pretty. Gag.

  5. I read this article without reading the byline, and had a sense of mounting irritation at the condescension throughout. Got to a point where I thought, wait, this must have been written by a man, and a fairly obnoxious one at that. Scrolled up to check the header and was overcome with hate. How can you allow this, knowing the context? How? Will be deleting my Jez bookmark.

  6. Side note: “Obviously, I’m much more circumspect about complimenting my students’ looks” really grossed me out, after reading the other stuff. Not, “my students’ looks are off-limits for commentary,” but “I’m careful when I remark on my students’ appearance.”

  7. One thing I’ve been thinking about is that, too, I think I hold Schwyzer to a different standard than I would other men. But that is indeed because of his past history. Another guy, I might read that post and think, “Ha, jackass, you don’t get it,” and moved on with my day but like I said before, I’m looking for evidence that the thing that caused Schwyzer to try to kill his ex-girlfriend (and I don’t mean the drugs which lowered his inhibitions enough to allow him to act on his impulses) has been addressed–that he gets that he does not know better than women do what we should do with our lives.

    He doesn’t, though.

    And so far he’s been very, very successful at camouflaging his actions as those any man in his circumstances might take. And yet, most men, even most drug-addicted men never try to kill their ex-girlfriends because they’ve decided her life isn’t worth living. But he’s very good at making it seem as if his behavior is just on a continuum of all male behavior.

    That way people who want to believe that garden-variety assholishness in men can be unlearned (something I also know to be true) will rush to his defense.

    It’s interesting to me that people who can speak so eloquently about how date-rapists camouflage their behavior as being more like average guys’ behavior can’t see the dynamic in one of their own friends.

    But maybe that’s the very hard lesson being learned by some folks right now.

  10. Definitely not just you. One of the things I’ve found bugging me about his writing is how often he cites “I’m a professor! I teach a class on X!” to give him authority. Dude, I know a few professors who are great. And a lot of them who are dimwits. Just being a professor doesn’t mean a lot. And bringing it up ALL the time just sounds like he’s a little too impressed by his own credentials.

    I mean, in addition to all of the more serious stuff y’all have brought up. With which I agree.

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